


Devils and Dust

by theladyscribe



Category: American Gods - Neil Gaiman, Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (2012), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Crossover, Gen, bruce springsteen fic project
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-08-19
Updated: 2012-08-19
Packaged: 2017-11-12 10:38:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,396
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/489970
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theladyscribe/pseuds/theladyscribe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"My brother and my father are missing," Thor says over coffee. "I cannot find them." // Steve Rogers and Thor Odinson go on a roadtrip. Thor learns about America, and Steve learns about gods.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Devils and Dust

**Author's Note:**

  * Translation into Русский available: [Дьяволы и пыль](https://archiveofourown.org/works/1001653) by [Herber_baby17](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Herber_baby17/pseuds/Herber_baby17)



> Many many thanks to samescenes for the beta work.

_We're a long, long way from home, Bobbie_  
Home's a long, long way from us  
I feel a dirty wind blowing devils and dust  
\--Bruce Springsteen, "Devils and Dust"

 _"You know," he said, "I think I would rather be a man than a god. We don't need anyone to believe in us. We just keep going anyhow. It's what we do."_ \--Neil Gaiman, _American Gods_

*

Thor appears on his doorstep on a gloomy day in early October. Steve's so surprised to see his old friend that he doesn't think twice before inviting him in.

"My brother and my father are missing," Thor says over coffee. "I cannot find them."

Steve thinks about this. He has not seen Loki nor Odin in decades, but even so, they have never been the type to disappear without a word to Thor. "Are they in trouble?"

Thor answers, "I don't know."

"Then let's find them."

*

They slip out of the city in a car Steve inherited from Tony. "Where to?" he asks as they reach the highway.

"West. Chicago," says Thor.

Steve drives.

*

As they drive west, Thor talks.

"My father and my brother are up to something. They do this from time to time, become more friends than adversaries. This time, though, feels different. Midgard is not the same as it once was."

Steve doesn't say anything; he knows more than most about the ways the world has changed.

*

The House on the Rock is a strange and gaudy place, not so different from Coney Island in its spectacle. The complex is almost overwhelming, with its maze of rooms filled with knick-knacks and odd collections. It is the sort of place Tony would have taken great pleasure in.

Thor stands in the merry-go-round's grand cathedral and stares at the machine with such intensity that Steve can feel the crackle of electricity along his skin. He thinks he can see people, or people-like things, sitting on the merry-go-round, like an after-image burned into his retinas. He blinks, and the image is gone, but the sense of power lingers.

"There were gods here," Thor states, his voice firm. "Some I have known, others I have not." He turns on his heel suddenly. "We should go."

*

They stay in shitty motels. They can afford better, but Steve never escaped what Clint called the "Depression mentality" of waste not, want not, and Thor is so preoccupied Steve suspects the man isn't sleeping. So they stay in shitty motels, and not a single soul blinks at the two men -- at the once-famous superheroes -- who pay for their room in cash.

*

The undertakers eye Steve with barely-concealed suspicion, though their cat purrs loudly as she weaves around his ankles.

They leave him in the kitchen with the cat and take Thor into the funeral home. Steve is not usually one to listen at doors, but the longer they travel, the more he is sure that Thor is hiding something from him. The cat follows, trying to distract him as she bats at his feet.

He only hears snatches of the conversation: _you were dead_ and _your brother -- no, not Loki -- was here_ and _you cannot stay_.

It's late when the men finish talking, but they leave just the same.

*

"Jacquel and Ibis said they buried me. It was more than a century ago, before your first war. You would have been just a boy, or maybe not born yet. I have no memory of it." Thor sighs. "I have no memory of any of my deaths."

Steve doesn't know what to say to that, so he says nothing.

*

"You're not a god," says the woman in the television. The picture flickers between Angelina Jolie and Rosalind Russell, settling on Jolie with a final snap of static. "What are you trying to get mixed up in this shit for?"

"Thor is my friend," Steve confesses to the television. "The only one I have left."

She flicks back to Rosalind Russell, unbuttons the top button of her prim suit, lets Steve catch a glimpse of black-and-white skin and lace. "You should stay out of it," she says in Russell's snappy-dialogue voice. "This isn't your fight."

*

They go to Las Vegas. Later, Steve remembers a man in gray, maybe, and a casino. When he asks Thor about it, the thunder god shrugs. "We should go to California," he says.

Steve nods and gets back in the car.

*

When they reach the Middle of America, Thor goes very quiet. He sits rigidly in his seat, eyes staring forward into nothing. Steve frowns at his friend; Thor has been quiet since they first left New York, but not like this.

"Your country has never been kind to gods," Thor says when Steve finally asks if he's alright.

Steve thinks about Bucky and Natasha and the way they had to run after Tony and Clint were killed; he thinks about Bruce, locked away by the military; he thinks about Fury, hanged as a traitor. He decides his country has never been kind to heroes, either.

*

"Loki isn't my only brother."

This shouldn't come as a shock to Steve, but it does. "What do you mean?" he asks after a moment.

"I mean that I have other brothers. Flesh-and-blood brothers, not adopted like Loki. Hermod, Hod, Tyr, Bragi. And Baldr, who has been dead for many centuries." Steve can feel Thor's eyes on him as he says, "Baldr is the only other of my brothers who has been to Midgard."

"Is he here again?"

"I do not know," Thor answers. "If he is, we must find him. Loki hates him, far more than he has ever hated me."

*

They drift for days on backroads. Steve is beginning to grow weary of this chase. They're always one step behind whoever or whatever Thor is following, and they're both growing frustrated.

They land near the border of Minnesota and South Dakota. Thor makes Steve stop in a one-red-light town, and the two of them sit and drink whiskey in a bar for what seems like days.

"This is a bad place for gods," Thor tells Steve again. "No one here knows how to worship us properly."

Steve doesn't point out that Thor never seemed to want worship in the days when they were still Avengers. It's not until later, when the Asgardian is snoring in the other bed, that Steve realizes they were _all_ worshipped like gods in those days.

*

Lookout Mountain is a war zone unlike any Steve's ever seen. That is to say, it _feels_ like a war zone, though the only corpses he can see are a woman with a bluish hue to her skin and a man with red hair. It takes Thor rushing to the side of the dead man to realize he's staring at Loki.

"I'm sorry," says a voice, and Steve turns to see a man stepping out of the shadows near the body of the woman.

Thor looks up, tears in his eyes, and says, "Baldr."

The big man frowns but nods. "Thor."

Steve feels like an intruder as the two men -- the two _gods_ \-- stare at each other, the looks on their faces conveying more emotion than speech could ever hope. He tries to take a step back, to give them space, but Thor stops him.

"Steven, this is my brother, Baldr. Baldr, this is Steven, a noble warrior and my friend."

Baldr stifles a grin as he turns to Steve. "It's good to meet you, Captain. I believe I had a poster of you on my wall when I was a boy."

"I'm afraid can't say the same, Sir," Steve answers.

That receives an outright laugh, and suddenly the clutching war zone tension is gone from the air.

*

Baldr leaves them to bury Loki with the apology that he has other things he must attend. Steve helps Thor shroud his brother and goes into town to buy a canoe and "the greatest amount of fine drink you can muster," not daring to ask what for.

That evening, they lay Loki in the canoe, drink half the whiskey, and pour the rest over the canoe.

When Thor lights the pyre, the blaze burns long into the night.

*

Steve invites Thor back to Brooklyn because he knows what it's like to mourn brothers alone.

Thor accepts, and once again, they climb into the car.

Steve drives.

**Author's Note:**

> Title is from "Devils and Dust" by Bruce Springsteen.
> 
> Feedback is loved.


End file.
